BDS

French president-elect François Hollande has told a Jewish community publication that he opposes the boycott of Israeli goods, even apparently from Israeli settlements in occupied territories, and considers such boycotts “illegal.” Meanwhile a French court disagreed, acquitting another group of BDS activists in a significant legal victory.

G4S has been severely criticized for its operations in the occupied Palestinian territories and in prisons and detention centers in Israel. Recently, Palestinian organizations called for action against G4S for its role in Israeli prisons.

News headlines from our top stories of the week, plus an interview with Anna Baltzer on the recent divestment initiative vote by the United Methodist Church.

Two open letters have been published this week in defense of UCLA professor David Shorter, who was recently the target of an attack by Israel lobby groups because of his endorsement of the BDS movement.

There will be huge disappointment from supporters of Palestinian rights and relief among supporters of Israel’s violation of those rights at the failure of the measure to divest from companies profiting from Israeli occupation at the United Methodist Church’s General Conference.

Perhaps, some may conclude, the battle is too tough and what worked against South Africa can never work against Israel.

The General Conference of the United Methodist Church today failed to pass a measure to divest from companies profiting from Israeli occupation and human rights abuses of Palestinians.

Following the Co-Op decision to boycott four Israeli suppliers, Israel’s apologists have responded with an ‘argument’ of unintentional hilarity: that BDS harms the Palestinians it claims to help.

One hundred and forty-eight US college professors signed a letter objecting to an advertisement in The New York Times by notorious racist David Horowitz naming indvidual faculty members at several US colleges and accusing them of inciting murder of Jewish children, and likening the movement to boycott Israel (BDS) to Nazism.

The Irish band Dervish announced today that it has pulled out of a series of Irish music concerts in Israel this June, so as not to violate calls for the cultural boycott of Israel.